U-M, WSU grant aims to improve African American health

ANN ARBOR-A grant renewal of $2.7 million will enable the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research to continue its work to improve the health of older African Americans. The Michigan Center, a collaboration of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and the Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology, is one of only seven across the country established to improve the health of older minorities through education, scholarship and outreach. The grant renewal through 2017 was awarded by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. Faculty at the Michigan Center investigate why older urban minorities suffer from poorer health than their white counterparts, and mentor junior minority scholars to encourage high quality research into issues affecting aging and ethnicity. The center provides free health screenings and community forums to educate more than 1,000 older minority members each year about preventing diseases that are prevalent in certain ethnic groups. It also maintains a database of older Detroit-area African Americans who are willing to volunteer for research projects. This pool of volunteers is highly valuable to researchers since African Americans and other minority groups have traditionally been underrepresented in research.